05-14-2005, 12:39 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Xbox 360 Announced, and it's a Big Deal
Yeah, every other Web site on the planet has already posted on the Xbox 360, but I wanted to absorb some of the data I've been reading before posting. The Xbox 360 is a very big deal, and not just because it's the most advance gaming console on the planet. First, watch this great video. Here are some quotes and links to sources around the Web.
"The 360 will pack a powerful technological punch, with an advanced IBM Power-PC processor and next generation ATI graphics chip. The machine will once again feature a hard drive for users to store saved games, music and more. This time, the drive will be 20GB (versus the current 8GB drive on the Xbox). It will also be detachable, allowing users to take their data to friends' houses, and upgradable."
- CNN Money
"Microsoft has realized that if it wants to further software initiatives in the home, it needed to reluctantly become its own hardware OEM and create the market for the hardware necessary to sell software. As a common folk saying goes, �when all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail� and of course that is why the Xbox originally resembled nothing more than a low end PC with a souped up graphics than anything else. Looking ahead, in this regard it is important to note that while Xbox 360 is a hardware platform it is really a software play for Microsoft. In fact, Microsoft has long now adopted a traditional video game business model, where it publishes ALL titles for the platform and charges third parties a fee on each disc that they ship for Xbox."
- Jupiter Research
"The Xbox 360 represents a technological breakthrough only possible because of the hard work of hundreds of masterminds around the world who converged to create the ultimate gaming machine. Unreal Engine 3-powered games running at 1280x720 with full screen anti-aliasing? Not a problem for the Xbox 360."
- Team Xbox
"...Bill Gates deliberately blabbed some details about the next xBox game system, which is to be officially announced this week. This gaffe, which I don't believe was a gaffe at all, came for specific reasons that are still not clear, but the implications of Gates' remarks ARE clear -- that xBox 360 will perform many functions that currently require a home computer. Not only will xBox 360 play video games, it will play music and movies, surf the web and probably even offer a non-PC platform for voice-over-IP."
- I, Cringely
So let's see here: high-definition, amazing CPU power, built-in Media Center Extender...this thing is going to make a killer add-on to a TV set, and is poised to move far beyond just being a gaming machine. Be sure to check out the I, Cringely article linked above - it's very thought-provoking.
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